Apparatus for continuously rolling up sheets of baked cookies

ABSTRACT

A device for forming rolled sheet articles, such as cookies, which are rolled after heating, comprises an endless conveyor which has a surface on which the article is placed and which is continuously advanced at a predetermined speed. The article is moved substantially tangent to a periphery of a roll-up roller which is rotatably mounted alongside a portion of the conveyor and is spaced less than the width of the sheet article thickness from the conveyor. The roll-up roller is rotated at a slower speed than the movement advance of the surface and it engages the sheet article or cookie and causes the bending thereof around its surface. A roller board is arranged adjacent the roll-up roller and it includes a stopper which prevents complete rolling of the article around the roll-up roller and instead deflects it forwardly in the feed advance direction of the conveyor. A friction surface is arranged above the conveyor and it is either stationary so that it provides a drag on the periphery of the partially rolled up article so as to complete its rolling during the advancing movement of the conveyor or it is moved in a direction and in an amount to cause a frictional drag on the periphery of the cookie and to continue its rolling and winding movement. For rolling cookies, it is desirable sometimes to feed the cookie either with its heated surface outermost or with its heated surface innermost and the apparatus includes means for directing the desired surface into the inside rolling arc or the outside rolling arc such as by a reversing device for reversing the location of the surface or by a roll-up roller which is arranged below the conveyor feed rather than above it so as to roll it inwardly rather than outwardly.

FIELD AND BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

This invention relates in general to a method and apparatus for formingcookies and, in particular to a new and useful method and device forrolling articles, such as sheets of cookies into a roll after they areheated and before they are permitted to cool.

DESCRIPTION OF THE PRIOR ART

At the present time, it is known to roll cookies or other dough-likesubstances before they are hardened, by using a rolling up spindlesystem, a rolling up from the outside system, or a manual rolling upsystem. In a conventional rolling up with a spindle system, a cookiesheet is inserted between a spindle and a rolling up belt and it isrolled around the spindle as the spindle is rotated and after completionof the rolling up, a rolled product is removed from the spindle.

In a conventional rolling up from the outside system, a strip-shapedchain link, which is deformable into various shapes, such as acylindrical shape, a flat shape, etc., is deformed into the selectedshape so as to wrap the sheet of cookies and after completion of therolling up, it is spread into a flat shape in order to take out therolled product. Both of the known systems, however, are very complicatedin construction and in the method of carrying out the operation and theyinvolve a high failure rate of the rolled products and require a highexpenditure for equipment. The manual system is, by its nature, not avery clean operation, and it is hard to automate and difficult toachieve mass production.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

In accordance with the present invention, there is provided an apparatusand a method for continuously rolling up sheets of baked cookies whicheliminates the disadvantages of the prior art and requires only a verysimple apparatus and can produce uniform rolled cookies in largequantities automatically and continuously and cleanly without damagingthe materials in the process.

In accordance with the invention, there is provided an apparatus forcontinuously rolling up sheets of baked cookies or similar articles,which comprises an endless conveyor which has a surface which iscontinuously movable for advancing the cookies through a feed path. Thesurface is moved into proximity with the surface of a continuouslyrotating roll-up roller. The roll-up roller is rotated at a speed whichis slower than the conveyor and it is sufficiently close to the conveyorso that it engages into the material and causes it to wind around itsown surface as the material is advanced by the conveyor. The apparatusincludes means for interrupting the rolling engagement of the materialwith the roller so that it becomes deflected away from the roller, andits outer periphery engages against a frictional surface of a rolling upboard which is positioned in proximity to the portion of the conveyorwhich extends away from the roll-up roller. In the preferredarrangement, the cookies are conveyed in a hot, soft state, and theroll-up roller may be arranged above or below the conveyor reach whichcarries the cookies so as to be in a position to either roll the doughso that the top or heated surface is rolled inwardly, or so that the topor heated surface is rolled outwardly, as desired.

In accordance with the inventive method, an article such as a heatedcookie is advanced along a conveyor in a path extending substantiallytangential to a wind-up roller and the material is fed at a speedslightly faster than the speed of rotation of the wind-up roller so thatthe material is picked up by the roller and deflected into an arc.Thereafter, the material is intercepted so that it does not continue towind around the wind-up roller while the conveyor is continuously moved,and during this latter movement, the outer periphery of the sheetmaterial is engaged and retarded relative to the speed of advance of theremaining portion on the conveyor so that the winding is continued.

A further object of the invention is to provide a device for windingsheets of cookies or similar materials which is simple in design, ruggedin construction, and economical to manufacture.

The various features of novelty which characterize the invention arepointed out with particularity in the claims annexed to and forming apart of this disclosure. For a better understanding of the invention,its operating advantages and specific objects attained by its uses,reference should be had to the accompanying drawings and descriptivematter in which there are illustrated preferred embodiments of theinvention.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

In the Drawings:

FIG. 1 is a partial side elevational and partial longitudinal schematicsectional view of an apparatus for rolling cookie sheets into a rollafter they are heated in an oven, and constructed in accordance with theinvention;

FIG. 2 is a partial enlarged side elevational view of a portion shown inFIG. 1 indicating the initial contact area of the cookie material withthe roll-up roller;

FIG. 3 is a view similar to FIG. 2, but showing only the cookiematerial;

FIG. 4 is a view similar to FIG. 2 showing a more advanced stage ofrotation of the roll-up roller;

FIG. 5 is a partial elevational view of the apparatus shown in FIG. 1;

FIGS. 6 through 10 are views similar to FIG. 5 showing various stages ofrolling the individual cookie sheet into a roll;

FIG. 11 is a view similar to FIG. 1 of another embodiment of theinvention; and

FIG. 12 is a view similar to FIG. 1 of still another embodiment of theinvention.

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS

Referring to the drawings in particular, the invention embodied thereinas indicated in FIGS. 1 through 10 comprises an apparatus for formingsheets of materials, such as cookies 2, which are in a softened state,into a complete rolled form 2". In accordance with the invention, thecookies are fed over a steel or meshed belt conveyor 31 through an oven9 and each sheet 2 is dumped in succession onto a moving belt conveyor,generally designated 1, for movement through an operational path.Conveyor 1 includes an endless belt engaged over pulleys 3, 4 and 5 andoriented such that the cookies 2 are fed through a first oblique pathextending tangentially toward the surface of a roll-up roller 6 and theyare then fed substantially tangentially away from this surface in asecond horizontal direction for the completion of the roll-up procedure.

In accordance with a feature of the invention, the belt conveyor 1 iscontinuously advanced at a predetermined speed, and the roll-up rolleris rotated at a speed which is slightly slower than the speed of advanceand it is located so as to engage into the surface of the cookie sheetmaterial 2 so as to cause it to bend around its surface to begin therolling of the cookie to a diameter comparable to the diameter of theroll-up roller 6.

The rolling up of the end of the cookie on the roll-up roller 6 begins,as shown in FIG. 2, with an arcuate contact of the cookie material 2with the roll-up roller 6 extending through an angle θ. Since theroll-up roller 6 rotates at a slower speed than the movement of thesurface 1a of the belt conveyor 1, it has a tendency to effect aproduction of forces acting on the cookie sheet material as indicated bythe arrows shown in FIG. 3. The net effect is to bend the cookiematerial around the surface of the roll-up roller 6, as shown in FIG. 4.

This same process is indicated on a smaller scale in FIGS. 5 to 10 and,after the cookie sheet material 2 reaches the location shown in FIG. 7,it contacts a stop member or deflector 8 which prevents further wraparound of the sheet material on roll-up roller 6. Since conveyor 1continues to feed in the horizontal direction after it travels obliquelyto the roller and around a portion of the surface thereof, the sheetmaterial is pulled away as indicated in FIG. 8 to a point at which theouter surface of the partially wound cookie sheet material 2' engagesagainst a roughened surface or friction surface 7a of a roll-up board 7.Friction surface 7a as indicated as being of saw-toothed construction,but it may be of any knurled or roughened surface to cause a holdingaction on the initially wound coil portion of the cookie sheet materialso that the remaining portion will feed around beneath this coil andcause the continuous winding thereof as indicated in FIG. 9 in thedirection of the small arrow shown near the cookie sheet material 2'.The rolling is substantially completed, as indicated in FIG. 10, due tothe combined force action of the friction surface 7a which acts in adirection to the right hand of the drawing and the force action of themoving conveyor 1 which acts in a direction to the left hand of thedrawing. The net effect is a turning couple acting evenly upon the sheetmaterial to form it into a uniform roll, as shown at 2' in FIG. 1.

In the operation just described, the sheet of cookie material 2 isheated on its top surface in oven 9, and it is rolled up so that itsheated or baked surface is positioned interiorly of the wound roll. Thesurface which is carried on the face of the belt which moves it throughthe conveyor becomes the outside surface of the rolled cookie. However,in some cases, it is desirable to roll up the sheet of cookie materialwith its baked surface outside and this may be accomplished in theembodiment of FIG. 11 merely with the use of cookie sheet reversingmeans which is effective to pick up each cookie sheet and to invert itbefore it is fed along the conveyor 1' which is similar to the conveyor1 in the embodiment of FIG. 1. As shown in FIG. 11, the reversing meanscomprises a scraper member 11 arranged to engage over the top surface ofa steel or meshed conveyor 31' used in association with the oven 9 toheat the cookie 2. The scraper plate 11 picks up each cookie anddeflects it onto a reversing conveyor, generally designated 18, which istrained to run over pulleys 12, 13, 14, 15, 16 and 17. The reversingconveyor 18 cooperates with an auxiliary conveyor 21 which is locatedover an inclined portion of the reversing conveyor and engages over thesurface of the heated cookies to prevent them from falling off and movesthe cookies through a temperature control chamber 22. The temperaturecontrol chamber 22 includes a heating device (not shown) for keeping thecookies at a temperature at which they will be best adaptable to beingformed into a roll and for preventing the cookies from hardening. Thecookie sheet material 2 is then deposited one at a time onto a rollingup belt conveyor 23, which is similar to the belt conveyor 1 of thefirst embodiment. The cookies move around the reversing roller 15 andare deposited onto conveyor 23 with the heated face down so that whenthey are directed between this conveyor and the roll-up roller 6, theyare wound in a direction in which the heated surface remains on theoutside. The initial rolling operation is carried out with the rollingup board 7 and, in addition, this embodiment indicates a separateauxiliary conveyor 27 arranged relationship to the horizontal section ofthe conveyor 23 and it includes an endless belt which rotates overpulleys 28 and 29 so that its lower reach engages at the periphery ofthe rolls being formed and completes their formation. During this time,conveyor 27 is run at a slower speed than the conveyor 23 so that forcesacting on the cookies being rolled will act in the directions of theopposed arrows shown in the drawing. The finished rolled cookie 2" isthen fed off the roller end 26. During the entire operation, it isadvantageous to maintain the cookie sheet material at the propertemperature and humidity.

In the embodiment of FIG. 12, a cookie is formed into a roll with thebaked surface oriented outside, similar to the second embodiment. Inthis embodiment, however, the sheet of cookie material is not firstreversed, but it is rolled in a downward direction over a roll-up roller6 positioned below the feeding reach of an endless belt conveyor 3".Belt conveyor 31" includes an endless belt engaged over pulleys 32, 33,34, 35 and 36. An auxiliary upwardly inclined belt conveyor 37cooperates with the belt conveyor 31" for preventing the fall off of thesheet material 2 and it includes end rollers or pulleys 38 and 39. Arolling up belt conveyor 43 which includes rollers 40, 41 and 42 isoriented so as to cooperate in deflecting cookie sheet material 2 aroundthe roll-up roller 6 so as to initiate the formation of a roll in adownward direction with the baked side of the cookie outwardly. Onceagain, when the cookie end contacts the stopper 8, the cookie materialis deflected away from the surface of the roll-up roller 6 and isadvanced along the rolling up base 7 which is arranged opposite to thelower reach of the roll-up conveyor 43. The action of conveyor 43 andthe rolling up board 7 continues the rotation of the cookie material toform the roll into a completed roll 2". This rolling action is furthercarried out in cooperation with an auxiliary belt conveyor 46 whichcooperates with the remaining portion of the roll-up conveyor 43 and itis spaced apart therefrom in a manner equivalent to the diameter of therolled up cookie measured to the exterior surface thereof. The auxiliarybelt conveyor includes rollers 44 and 45 and a feed-off portion 47 ontowhich the completed roll 2" is delivered. At the end of the apparatusshown in FIG. 12, the cookie 2" is conveyed to subsequent stages, suchas, cooling and form-retaining stages along the downward feed chute 47.

While specific embodiments of the invention have been shown anddescribed in detail to illustrate the application of the principles ofthe invention, it will be understood that the invention may be embodiedotherwise without departing from such principles.

What is claimed is:
 1. An apparatus for forming rolled sheet articles,such as cookies, which are rolled after heating, comprising an endlessconveyor having a surface on which a sheet article thereon iscontinuously advanced at a predetermined speed, a roll-up rollerrotatably mounted alongside a portion of said conveyor spaced less thanthe sheet article thickness therefrom and being rotated at a slowerspeed than said surface so as to engage the sheet article and cause thebending of the article around the surface of the roll-up roller, stoppermeans overlying said roll-up roller surface at a location spaced fromthe sheet article material contact on the surface of said roll-up rollerto cause the sheet article material to be discharged from said roll-uproller, and sheet article rotation means engageable with respectiveopposite sides of said roller and effective to move the opposite sidesat distinct speeds so as to produce a rotational couple thereon tocontinue the rolling up of the sheet article material.
 2. An apparatusaccording to claim 1, wherein said sheet article rotation means includesa portion of said endless conveyor extending away from said roll-uproller and a fixed roll-up board spaced from said portion of saidconveyor by an amount sufficient to contact the periphery of thepartially rolled and completely rolled sheet material being advanced onsaid conveyor.
 3. An apparatus according to claim 2, wherein saidroll-up board has a surface opposed to the sheet material whichfrictionally engages said material.
 4. An apparatus according to claim3, wherein said stopper means includes a member arranged adjacent oneend of said rolling up board overlying said roll-up roller and blockingthe movement of the material around the surface of the roller.
 5. Anapparatus according to claim 1, wherein the article is a cookie sheetmaterial and including an oven for heating the sheet material arrangedadjacent said conveyor, conveyor means associated with said oven formoving the sheet material through said oven onto said conveyor.
 6. Anapparatus according to claim 5, wherein the oven heats the top side ofthe sheet material, said roll-up roller is located above said conveyorin a position to roll the heated top side of the material inwardly overthe surface of said roll-up roller.
 7. An apparatus according to claim1, wherein said roll-up roller is located below said conveyor in aposition such that the sheet material is fed downwardly over the surfaceof said roll-up roller and the top side of the sheet material becomesoriented outwardly in the wound roll.
 8. An apparatus according to claim1, wherein the sheet material is reversed before it is wound.
 9. Anapparatus according to claim 1, including an oven for heating thematerial, the material comprising a cookie sheet, means for advancingthe cookie sheet into association with the oven, means for transferringthe heated cookie sheet from the advancing means to said endlessconveyor.
 10. An apparatus according to claim 9, wherein said means foradvancing said cookie sheet from said advancing means to said endlessconveyor includes a reversing conveyor having a reach extending abovethe top of said endless conveyor and having a return roller overlyingsaid endless conveyor, the cookie material being fed around said returnroller and deposited on said endless conveyor with its initial top sidebeing oriented downwardly on said endless conveyor.
 11. A cookie formingdevice, comprising an oven, means for advancing cookie sheet material tosaid oven to heat the material, an endless conveyor arranged adjacentsaid advancing means in a position to receive the heated cookies and tomove them through a feed path, said endless conveyor including adownwardly extending oblique portion and a horizontally extendingportion, the roll-up roller located at the juncture of said horizontaland said downwardly extending oblique portion of said conveyor and beingspaced close to said conveyor less than the thickness of the sheetmaterial, said roll-up roller being rotatable at a speed which is lessthan the speed of advance of said endless conveyor and being engageablewith each sheet of cookie materials to deflect it in a curve around saidroller surface so as to begin the rolling thereof, a stopper overlyingsaid roll-up roller deflecting the sheet material away from said rolleras said sheet material is continuously fed by said conveyor from saidoblique portion along said horizontal portion, and a friction surfacespaced from said horizontal portion by an amount of the initial rollingof said sheet material and retarding the outward rolled end thereofwhile the material is advanced on said horizontal portion of saidconveyor so as to complete the rolling of the material.
 12. A cookieforming device, according to claim 11, wherein said friction surfacecomprises a moving surface.
 13. A cookie forming device, according toclaim 11, including means for reversing said cookies so that the portionthereof which is upward during its passage through said oven is orienteddownwardly on said endless conveyor.
 14. A cookie forming device,according to claim 11, wherein said roll-up roller is located below thesurface of said endless conveyor and said sheet material is fed downover said surface so as to roll the sheet material with its top surfaceoriented outwardly.